Helena de Kay Gilder

Sarah Helena de Kay Gilder (1846 - 28 May 1916) was an American painter, illustrator, and cultural tastemaker from New York City. Early life and education Sarah Helena de Kay Gilder (also known as Helena de Kay Gilder after her marriage) was born in New York City in 1846. She was the daughter of George Coleman de Kay and Janet Halleck de Kay (nee Drake), and granddaughter of the poet Joseph Rodman Drake. Her father was a naval officer who died when she was only two years old. After her father's death, her mother moved her and her brother, George, to Dresden Germany where they lived until 1861, before moving back to the United States so her mother could be closer to her older sister Katherine after she became a mother. She was then enrolled in a girl's boarding school located in Farmington, Connecticut. She studied art at the Cooper Union Institute as well as at the National Academy of Design in the 1870s, during the first years that life classes were open to women. She also as studied privately with artists Winslow Homer, John La Farge and Albert Pinkham Ryder. Marriage and children